The Grapes of Wrath Essays & Research Papers

Best The Grapes of Wrath Essays

The novel The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck has many themes, but one theme the story is centralized around is the role of Christianity. The role of Christianity in The Grapes of Wrath is what allows the people to keep going during the times of the Great Depression. Without religion, the families in the novel would have simply given up all faith and hope.
Like many events in the novel, many characters in Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath symbolize the theme of Christianity. The most...

Grapes Of Wrath written by John Steinbeck illustrates the hard ships families went through during the Dust Bowl. Families were forced to leave their farms, jobs, and lives to go find work elsewhere. John Steinbeck shows the struggles through the Joad family, he takes the reader on their journey from leaving Oklahoma to arriving in California. While this family could have given up hope and given into despair they kept on pushing. They never gave up hope despite all of the struggles they faced....

Mr. Yescas
English 101-125
1 November 2008
Man vs. Man: Darwinism
“If a man owns a little property, that property is him, it’s a part of him, and it’s like him… But let a man get property he doesn’t see, or can’t take time to get his fingers in, or can’t be there to walk on it—why, then the property is the man (Steinbeck 424).” This quote identifies the thought process of a tenant farmer being evicted from his home, the land he grew up on, in chapter five of John Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize...

Steven Messner
November 1, 2012
Changes Along the Road
John Steinbeck’s book, The Grapes of Wrath, shows the audience future changes in America, namely the coming Industrial Revolution, and the conflict between the locals and the Okies. These themes are supported by subplots of desperation, hunger, and the upcoming change in America. These subplots are particularly highlighted and illustrated in chapters 11 and 21.
Steinbeck begins chapter 11 with a metaphor illustrating the coming...

1,299 Words | 4 Pages

All The Grapes of Wrath Essays

The Grapes of Wrath Essay
A symbol is an object, action or event that represents something or that creates a range of associations beyond itself. In The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, there are many things that are used for symbolism and some of these things are the animals that are explained throughout the book. During the setting there is a depression where people are getting kicked out of their homes, losing their jobs and having to pick up everything and move to the west in hopes of a...

Greg P
American Lit. II
Prof.
4/12/02
We as Americans have seen our share of violence whether it is first hand, through the media, or in history books. We have seen the pain and struggle that these people must go through in order to survive. This novel, The Grapes of Wrath, relates to some of the many times of violence and cruelty that this America has seen.
During the Dust Bowl, hundreds of thousands of southerners faced many hardships, which is the basis of the novel called The...

Mary Shea
January 16, 2013
US Literature-03
The Morality in The Grapes of Wrath
Through the many premises in the renowned novel, The Grapes of Wrath, many morals can be derived. Steinbeck emphasizes the transition of characters from selfishness to selflessness from their experiences through the novel. Through the contrasting themes of drought and flood, Steinbeck delivers the meaning of the novel; to achieve success, people must come together and fight for their common cause.
Initially,...

Grapes of Wrath
“If a young man is about to commence in the world ... we say to him publicly and privately, go to the West. There, your capacities are sure to be appreciated and your industry and energy rewarded.", were the words of the former lead editor of the New York Tribune Horace Greely, regarding the necessity of expansion of the United States of America to the Western coast. Beginning with the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 during the Democratic Jefferson Era, the concept of America’s...

﻿Fighting the Grip of Time to Become Everlasting
Many things are uniquely specific to man, but no other can further motivate us as a single human race to action like the ever present ability of time. Time has such a tight grip over humans as a whole that the entire embodiment of ones life might be focused on the passing hands of ones watch. The passage within chapter 14 of “Grapes of Wrath” examines many aspects of man, such as creation through work, concepts worth fighting for, and pure human...

1 Introduction
This seminar paper tries to give some insight into the biblical structure of John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath. The reason why I chose this novel is that I am really fascinated by Steinbeck's style of writing which varies from symbolic to allegorical. After I have finished reading The Grapes of Wrath, which I consider to be one of the most effective social documents of the 1930s, I started thinking about which aspects would be the most interesting to concentrate...

"In books lies the soul of the whole past time" (Thomas Carlyle). Carlyle explains that through books one can look at the past and experience various shades of life. Both books, John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath and Arthur Miller's The Crucible are associated to history in special ways. For instance, The Grapes of Wrath is a story about the Dust Bowl migration and how it altered lives of thousands of people. On the other hand, The Crucible is in relation to the witch-hunts of 1950s. Even though...

﻿Lily Schwemley
AP English
4th Hour
Mrs. Lewellen
Grapes of Wrath
Steinbeck continuously points out that the migrants’ situation is the fault of humans, not that of their own. “I’m learnin’ one good thing… if you’re in trouble or hurt or need – go to the poor people they’re the only ones that’ll help.” He gives many examples in which the migrants are strong, amiable, and willing to help their man more so than the rich. He makes the point that the man who has nothing is often the...

Do People Always Treat Each Other the Same?
There are many different themes in the novel The Grapes of Wrath. The theme of a book is used to get a point across. John Steinbeck uses the “from ‘I’ to ‘we’” theme to show that the migrants need to unionize. In John Steinbeck’s proletarian novel, The Grapes of Wrath, the theme of “from ‘I’ to ‘we’” develops in the novel.
The theme “from ‘I’ to ‘we’” stems from the concept of universal soul. Both try to influence people to join together to...

As the stock market crashed down the American economy at the beginning of the 20th century, it created a tidal wave of destruction that engulfed the entire country. Eventually the storm subsided into heavy clouds that passed, leaving behind a ferocious sun that revealed America's upheaval into the Great Depression. John Steinbeck book, The Grapes of Wrath, illustrates a families journey as they are forced from their farm in Depression-era Oklahoma and set out for California along with thousands...

Grapes of Wrath Long Research essay
One of the greatest historical fiction novels written, The Grapes of Wrath written by John Steinbeck, is not only vividly descriptive, but includes incredibly complex themes, allowing the reader to delve into the meaning endlessly. One of these themes discusses the liberation of women for men in the novel, a complex subject that Steinbeck envelopes in his story almost discreetly. The two main women in the novel that liberate them selves from men are Ma Joad...

Cesar Gutierrez
Mrs. Delagneau
AS1 ELA
29 of November 2012
This Is Our Land
To human beings, environment is vital. After spending a number of years in one place, it is very human nature to become attached. This is especially true with farmers. They spend their lives learning the land around them. The land becomes a friend to them, having almost human value. In the novel The Grapes of Wrath, author John Steinbeck conveys the connection people have with their land, how big, greedy,...

Akash Kumar
Mr. Wilson
Exposition and Argumentation
9 April 2013
Annotated Bibliography
Donelson, Ken. “The Front Line: ‘ You Can’t Have That Book in My Kid’s School Library:’ Books
Under Attack in the ‘Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom.’” The High School Journal 74.1
(Oct.- Nov. 1990): 1-7. Web. JSTOR. 9 April 2013.
The novel, The Grapes of Wrath, was banned from many public libraries and public and
private schools. It has a list of a lot of the schools. Also, it listed what parents...

Deep reading is a style of reading where one sits and obtains a truer understanding of the implied meanings of a book. So much of reading today is done in a very quick or jumpy kind of style where one will jump from one text to another never fully digesting what she is reading. In other words, with so much reading being done from the internet people are reading snippets and headlines that give them a gist of an article or work instead of sitting with a book and really digesting, re-reading, and...

﻿
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The book The Grapes of Wrath is focused on the time period of The Great Depression and was published in 1939. The Great Depression was a time of poverty in the United States caused by a decline in farm prices and the crash. During the Great Depression most families had no one working, on some occasions one person was lucky enough to have a job. The one person with the job had the responsibility of...

Due to the legacy and influence of John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath has become an inspiration for various artists such as Bruce Springsteen and Rage Against the Machine. While Springsteen produced the song, “The Ghost of Tom Joad” in 1995, the Rage Against the Machine covered it in 1998. Both covers of the song emotionally snatched the hearts of listeners and provided a message for the impoverished and working class. Also, both artists performed varying styles of music to express their...

Throughout John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath, many concepts appear that were noted in How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster. However, the three chapters of Foster’s how-to guide that most apply to Steinbeck’s novel were “It’s All About Sex…,” “Every Trip is a Quest (Except When It’s Not),” and “It’s More Than Just Rain or Snow.” On more than one occasion these concepts are hidden within the book, and two of them actually seem somewhat linked together. After reading...

Pic 1
Lexi Pic
Jones
Red 2
15 February 2015
Many years ago author, John Steinbeck wrote a novel known as ​
The Grapes of Wrath.
The novel was published on April 14, 1939. ​
The Grapes of Wrath​
is about the Joad family and
their trip to California to try to find a better life than they had in Oklahoma. Through the writing
of the novel John Steinbeck fulfills the role of an artist according to James Baldwin. James
Baldwin wrote “The Creative Process”​
​...

Grapes of Wrath History
John Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath in response to the life of the people that lived in Oklahoma and traveled west to California. This book, which was written during the end of the dirty thirties, is filled with anger and hatred related to the dust bowl and the great depression times. Steinbeck strived for this novel to be his best he had ever written. He spent months researching how the people were treated during these times in order to enhance the emotions...

Grapes of Wrath
Of all the injustices that are bestowed upon mankind, none are greater than the ones inflicted by our own species of apathy towards poverty and the hardships of our brothers. Mother nature also inflicts much damage to mankind in instances such as Hurricane Katrina. Steinbeck gives a view of human frailties and strengths from many different perspectives in The Grapes of Wrath, just as Josh Neufeld does in New Orleans After the Deluge. This book demonstrates how people can...

Krystal Giffen
The Grapes of Wrath
Part 1: Literary Analysis
1. A. “…‘What’s this call, this sperit?’ An’ I says, ‘It’s love…” (page 23, Chapter 4). This quote is an example of an metaphor. The use of this metaphor was to show the reader why the preacher doesn’t preach anymore. The effect the metaphor had on the reader was, for them to see how the preacher really viewed ‘the sperit’.
B. “One cat’ takes and shoves ten families out. Cat’s all over hell now…” (pg. 8, Chapter 2). This...

“Is That a Symbol?”
Tom Joad just released from an Oklahoma state prison, Hitch hiking his way home finds that many things have changed. On the way he finds Reverend Jim Casy, He has given up his calling because of his sinful thoughts. Jim follows Tom to his home, only to find the house deserted, The Joads and many others have left their farms.
In the novel The Grapes of Wrath there are many symbols, From the Dust, The truck that hits the turtle, the bulldozer, and...

In the grapes of wrath by john Steinbeck he made the solid point that when society is in a crisis, times are easier when we all take the responsibility of helping each other out instead of every man for him self. Today we are all faced with crisis’s but it always better to work together. Such as when hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans if the country as a whole wouldn’t have gotten together to help, many wouldn’t have survived. Therefore john Steinbeck was successful in creating this point because...

﻿Grapes of Wrath
Being part of a community is something everyone should relate to, yet hard times make people feel alone and alienated. They feel as if they can relate to no one, and no one has the same problems as them. However, in The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck writes about a family of migrants who lose everything. They are left homeless with no money, and are forced to travel to California, where they hope for work. Despite all their hardships they even grow closer as they learn the...

Film Review: The Grapes of Wrath
The film The Grapes of Wrath, directed by John Ford, pragmatically depicts the conditions, both cultural and economic, during the Great Depression. The film specifically focuses on the "Dust Bowl" in the 1930s. The main focus of The Grapes of Wrath is the journey of the Joad family. The family is forced to leave their farm in Oklahoma due to the tyranny imposed by banks and big mechanized companies who bought the lands. When the family leaves their farm,...

Annotated Bibliography
Steinback, John. The Grapes of Wrath. The Viking Press: Los Gatos, CA, 1939.
This novel is about how people as the Joad family lived during the great depression, and how they did it to survive. Tom , just released from prison, comes home to find his family struggling to get money to eat. Ma Joad is the person that keeps their family together when everyone wants to give up or stay behind. Jim Casy, an ex-preacher, is a major character because he tells Tom where to...

Adam Karman
7/15/10
Ms. Benson
Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath is a novel that depicts the troubles that the Great Depression era family, the Joads, have to face in order to make a living. The Joad family is caught between two colliding cultures, the culture of the Joad’s home state of Oklahoma and the culture of California, the state they have traveled to in order to start a new life. These two cultures are extremely different, and being in this new place...

﻿Together We Can – A Research Essay on The Grapes of Wrath
The topic of this research essay is Tom Ford’s The Grapes of Wrath starring Henry Fonda as Tom Joad, Jane Darwell as Ma Joad, and John Carradine as Casy. This movie effortlessly depicts the struggle of many Midwest families who were displaced in the 1940’s after the severe droughts and dust storms wreaked financial havoc on their farming lifestyles. Hoping to find better prospects out west, many families faced unimaginable conditions,...

Tom Joad
-Tom Joad is a man that genuinely worries for his own family and has a hard exterior, but beneath that lies a kind and often merciful, but quick to anger and fiercely independent person. Furthermore, he also hates it when people swerve on purpose just to hit an animal. "Gives me a little shakes ever' time" page 185.
- Tom Joad changed severely throughout the book from the selfish person he was, to a figure committed to bettering the future, as well as an improved leader for the...

Grapes of Wrath Final Essay
In John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath he succeeds in capturing the suffering and turmoil surrounding farm owners, families, and migrant workers during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. The way in which Steinbeck captures the struggle of the Joad family and many others as they make their way to the “Eden” of California gives excellent insight into the American socioeconomic condition in the 1930s. In many ways I believe that Steinbeck is condemning, not...

The Grapes
of Wrath
John Steinbeck
Copyright 1939 John Steinbeck
To
CAROL
Who willed this book
To
TOM
Who lived it
1
TO THE RED COUNTRY and part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains
came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth. The plows crossed and recrossed
the rivulet marks. The last rains lifted the corn quickly and scattered weed colonies and
grass along the sides of the roads so that the gray country and the dark red country
began to disappear under...

﻿ “The last clear definite function of man-muscles aching to work, minds aching to create beyond the single need-this is man.” (Sparknotes) John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath is a novel that emphasizes the ill treatment and extreme poverty of migrant workers. Steinbeck was an American legend who was born an ordinary person in an average hard working American home. In his novel The Grapes of Wrath John shows how he incorporates the hard working mentality of American citizens, how they are...

If there is a creative work that has shaped my moral and social world view, it is John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. Its portrayal, through the deeply proud and human Joad family, of the plight of so many during such a difficult time in America suggests a set of core attitudes by which an honorable people can cope with all sorts of difficulties, including the sort that America and the world struggle with today.
Using scenes of great power and feeling, Steinbeck suggests that a healthy society...

Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck took an interesting point of view to America’s Dust Bowl and Westward movement. It is extremely hard to differentiate from condemning America and telling it like it is. When it becomes hard to tell that’s when I look at who eyes he wrote the story through, the poor. With this thought alone the tone was set instantly that Steinbeck was condemning America, however he showed the glimpses of light that celebrated the people of America....

Naturalism in The Grapes of Wrath
In John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family and the changing world in which they live is portrayed from a naturalistic point of view. Steinbeck characterizes the Joads and their fellow migrants as simple, instinct-bound creatures who are on an endless search for paradise (Owens 129). The migrants and the powers which force them to make their journey--nature and society--are frequently represented by animals. The Joads, when they...

The Joad family is forced to move to California because of the Oklahoma Dust
Bowl, which has made it impossible for them to earn a livelihood through farming.
Drought and depression has made it impossible for farmers to grow a substantial amount
to live on. As inflation rises and wages drop, a gigantic worker migration heads West in
search of Jobs. They have seen notices asking for workers in the western part of the
United States, and travel thinking that they will find gainful...

﻿The Great Depression and The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck’s, The Grapes of Wrath portrays how the great depression affected the lives of industrialists and the common people of the era in both positive and negative way. The Grapes of Wrath has put the great depression in a different perspective. During that era, tragedies occurred such as, inhumanity, selfishness, and poverty. However, the great depression wasn’t complete downfall, such as, growth, maturity, and the power of family and...

"How can we live without our lives? How will we know it's us without our past? No. Leave it. Burn it" (88). Do you know what it's like to move and only have room for one bag to pack? And you didn't even know if you were guaranteed a shelter or food? In the novel The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, an migrant Oklahoma family, the Joads, sell their farm and travel west in search of a new life away from the tragedies of the Dust Bowl. A minor character, Grampa, plays a vital role with his...

Chapter 30
In chapter 30 mans unity, hope, survival is tested along with woman’s strength, individuality Vs. Society and the multiplying effects of selfishness. Times are hard and people are challenged by the force of time. As the Joad family is in California they are hit by a massive rain storm, the storm causes the Joads to lose there car and run for shelter. Not only is there day bad enough but Rose of Sharon loses her baby at birth.
The family of the Joads is really tested in there will...

Sociology
M, 2-5
Grapes of Wrath Essay
This assignment allowed me the opportunity to use my sociological perspective to analyze the film The Grapes of Wrath'. The Grapes of Wrath is a book made into a movie, based on the great depression of the 30's. It follows the Joad family, who has been forced off their family farm by the government, as they try to find a new settlement and head west to California after receiving flyers for high wage work in fruit orchards. This true story does...

The Grapes of Wrath is a novel by John Steinbeck that exposes the desperate conditions under which the migratory farm families of America during the 1930's lived. The novel tells of one family's migration west to California through the great economic depression of the 1930's. The bank took possession of their land because the owners could not pay off their loan. The novel shows how the Joad family deals with moving to California, and how they survive the cruelty of the landowners that took...

﻿Abigail Williams
Ms. Smaldore
English 3AP
9/29/13
Undying Resilience of the Joads
If you were set going on a path you knew was full of hardships, would you still travel on it? If everything you experienced so far, and everything you heard on this road was dreadful, would you still continue? In the novel The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, the stubborn and determined turtle never quits. Even though he was nearly run over by cars, and kicked and pushed around, he kept trying to cross the...

Symbolism in The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck is an author known worldwide for his compelling stories and novels. One such novel is The Grapes of Wrath. This novel was written to expose the plight of those dispossessed from their lands by the Great Depression. Steinbeck uses several literary elements to help relate the story to the reader. In The Grapes of Wrath, as in his other works, Steinbeck relies on the use of symbolism to strengthen and enhance the plot.
By far, the most involved...

James Campo
Mrs. Schaffer
APES
4/23/2012
Essay #16
John Steinbeck, born in Salinas, California, was the author of many novels: The Pearl, East of Eden, Of Mice and Men, and In Dubious Battle. One in particular though was one of the most controversial books written in the 20th century. The Grapes of Wrath, a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel written in 1939, and Steinbeck's second best novel, second only to East of Eden, was the most eye opening book I've read since Lies My Teacher Taught...

September 7th, 2012
Rhetorical Analysis of The Grapes of Wrath
The dust bowl was a tragic time in America for so many families and John Steinbeck does a great job at getting up-close and personal with one family to show these tragedies. In the novel, “The Grapes of Wrath”, John Steinbeck employed a variety of rhetorical devices, such as asyndeton, personification and simile, in order to persuade his readers to enact positive change from the turmoil of the Great Depression. Throughout the...

By writing his novel “Grapes of Wrath”, John Steinbeck was ready to receive harsh criticism. His novel showed his obvious support for the poor and this gave the impression that he was an anti-capitalist and communist. Many people could argue that Steinbeck’s story was bias by siding with the working class. However, once a reader goes behind the scenes of Grapes of Wrath and dives deeper into Steinbeck’s novel, one would find that Steinbeck absolutely knew what he was talking about. John...

Economic Forces
In the movie and or novel The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck approaches and takes on, many political and social problems that the depression held. One topic that seems to be overlooked is how the storyline has many examples of economic forces at work in the film.
One of these economic forces, which are also one of the most apparent, in the film is the message of unemployment. At the opening of the film the family of the grapes of wrath are faced with eviction from their farm...

John Steinbeck carefully molded his story The Grapes of Wrath to encompass many
themes and ideas. He included several Biblical allusions to enforce his message of the
migrating families coming together to form a community. Steinbeck alludes to Biblical
characters through Jim Casy and Rose of Sharon, events like the family's journey to
California and the flood at the end of the novel, and teachings throughout the novel.
The Biblical allusions represented by the characters in the novel...

John Steinbeck’s Message
In The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck emphasizes Ma Joad. Steinbeck uses Ma Joad to express his views on how people can reach the American Dream. In the book, Steinbeck does not express that individuals can achieve the American Dream. He expresses his idea that the people should unite and continue to strive for the American Dream even through the worst of times. Through Ma Joad, he emphasizes that the poor and lower class should unite and continue to push for their...

The Grapes of Wrath: Symbolism
February 28, 1997
The Grapes of Wrath is a novel by John Steinbeck that exposes the desperate
conditions under which the migratory farm families of America during the 1930's
live under. The novel tells of one families migration west to California through
the great economic depression of the 1930's. The Joad family had to abandon
their home and their livelihoods. They had to uproot and set adrift because
tractors were rapidly industrializing their farms....

Struggle for Survival in The Grapes of Wrath
The 1930s were a time of hardship for many across the United States. Not only was the Great Depression making it difficult for families to eat every day, but the Dust Bowl swept through the plains states making it nearly impossible to farm the land in which they relied. John Steinbeck saw how the Dust Bowl affected farmers, primarily the tenant farmers, and journeyed to California after droves of families. These families were dispossessed from the...

The Nobel Prize winner for literature, John Steinbeck, in his novel, The Grapes of Wrath, illustrates the hardships of the migrant farmers as they moved from their homes. Steinbeck’s purpose is to establish how much the Joads and other migrant farmer families struggled during their journey and to . Through the use of personification, allusions and symbols, Steinbeck successfully gets his message across to his readers.
As Uncle John makes his way down to the “boiling stream”, he finds a...

Nalaboff 1
Ellie Nalaboff
Mrs. Byun
Ap English Language, P.4
27 May 2014
The Grapes of Wrath : Part 1
John Steinbeck wrote a very long novel consisting of thirty chapters. The total book has
four hundred and sixty­four pages including an introduction, a further to reading, notes, and of
course the novel itself. As the story develops he introduces characters who go on a journey to
California to find work. In the fantastic story, he reveals characters in love, starvation, sickness, ...

DEDICATION
I dedicate this humble work to those whose blood runs in my veins; to my dearly loved parents and to:
my dearest sisters all fundamental B.A student all my delighted and respected English teachers all those who will read this modest research paper
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I’m foremost grateful to my supervisor Dr. YASSINE Rachida whose guidance and continual encouragement have efficaciously helped towards the fulfillment of this modest research paper. I would like also to thank...

﻿
The Grapes of Wrath Theme
As we read the novel, Steinbeck wants us to think about a lot of things. Like family, hope, power, a new beginning, love for the land and many more. A theme that has greatly impacted me is family; the close relationship of a family. The Joads are all very close to each other and love and care greatly for each other. Steinbeck has shown that in the Joad’s family the men make decisions and the women humbly listen to them. “And then Ma came out of the house, and...

Michael Brittain Jr.
October 10, 2012
Ms. Mehretu 1B
Mid Term Report
-------------------------------------------------
Some Americans believe this novel is dirty, blasphemous, and advocate a communistic society, and therefore should not be taught in high schools. Explain why you agree or disagree that the novel should be read and studied in you high school.
Over the years, some Americans claimed that John Steinbeck’s novel “Grapes of Wrath is very dirty and blasphemous. They also...

Themes in The Grapes of Wrath
There are several different themes in The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck. Here I will go into depth on those. The three main themes in the story are free will versus necessity, the holiness of every man, and the kinship of all man.
The main theme (and the most important, in my opinion) is free will versus necessity. All throughout the story, the characters are forced to do something either because they want to or they have to. A good example would be Ma's...

To me, the most apparent “round character” in The Grapes of Wrath was Tom Joad. The “flat character” I would have to say was Al Joad. Tom Joad is almost an equally important character, and is also the first character seen. Right from the beginning of the story, he seems to be the "black sheep", due mostly to the fact that he has spent some time in jail for manslaughter. His characterization is done mostly indirectly, through his family's response to his being out of jail. He is also developed,...

﻿The Change of Faith in The Grapes of Wrath
Problems are inevitable in life, and a great deal can deter people from their natural hopes and traditional faith. The depression that the Joads go through creates questions about beliefs and religion, and shows how it truly affects their lives. Steinbeck communicates how it is difficult to maintain a strong sense of faith through continual hardships without renewing traditional beliefs in The Grapes of Wrath.
The transformation of the migrants’...

John Steinbeck wrote in his 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath: "And then the dispossessed were drawn west- from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico; from Nevada and Arkansas, families, tribes, dusted out, tractored out. Carloads, caravans, homeless and hungry; twenty thousand and fifty thousand and a hundred thousand and two hundred thousand. They streamed over the mountains, hungry and restless  restless as ants, scurrying to find work to do  to lift, to push, to pull, to pick, to cut ...

John Steinbeck went into writing about the Dust Bowl migration feeling that he had the responsibility to convey the problem correctly. The Grapes of Wrath not only works as a call to action in favor of the masses of migrant workers that were forced to live in poverty, but also expresses several other messages about mankind itself. Steinbeck uses powerful imagery, unique and suspenseful structure, dramatic tone, and compelling symbolism to effectively squeeze a mountain of an issue into pages of...

﻿In John Steinbeck’s proletarian novel, The Grapes of Wrath, he uses foreshadowing to characterize Casy, Tom, and Ma. Foreshadowing is when events hint to the future. By using foreshadowing to characterize, it helps the reader understand the novel.
Steinbeck uses foreshadowing to characterize Casy in two ways. Casy says “I got the call to lead the people, but no place to lead ‘em” (29). He says this because he was once a preacher, but he quit. He has the instincts of a natural leader and has...

In The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, Steinbeck uses Marxist ideals to plot the long struggle experienced by the Joad family. The Joads’ experiences prove that the Bourgeoise abuse their power in order to control the Proletariats, alienating and exploiting their class to prevent revolution by forcing them to work for barely enough money.
Families who had lived and worked on their land their whole lives became workless as the bank repossessed homes to sustain profit. The bank had become a...

Amber Quinn
2/22/2012 History 1302
Film Critique One
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
The Grapes of Wrath was a 1940s film adapted from the novel by John Steinbeck. It graphically depicts the trials and tribulations of a mid-western American farming family, the Joads. It is set during the strife of the 1920s great depression and the seven-year drought of the mid 1930s, which devastated thousands of working families. It recreates the intensity of the socio-economic impact of the...

The Grapes of Wrath: Symbolic Characters
Struggling through such things as the depression, the Dust Bowl summers,
and trying to provide for their own families, which included finding somewhere
to travel to where life would be safe. Such is the story of the Joads. The
Joads were the main family in John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, a book which
was written in order to show what a family was going through, at this time
period, and how they were trying to better their lives at the...

THE GRAPES OF WRATH
-Movie Review-
FROM A TRIBUNE MOVIE CRITIC VIEW POINT
People today realize that individualism in our time, of the Great Depression, doesn't work. The stock market is plunging; people are losing their jobs, money, and homes. The most well known people suffering through these hard times are the Okies. Okies come from Oklahoma, the major home of the Dust Bowl. The Okies continue to flock to the land of promise, California. Their motive is to find work and better living...

In the 1930s, drought and horrific dust storms turned the
once-fertile agricultural lands of mid-America into virtual
dust bowls and wastelands. Thousands of destitute farmers
packed their families and belongings into and onto their cars
and left their homes in search of agricultural work in central
California. Their plight and the politics of that day are told in
the novel "The Grapes of Wrath." Published in 1939 by
California writer John Steinbeck, the book won the 1940
Pulitzer Prize....

Women are typically known for holding families together. When times get rough, women are the foundation to the family and help keep things together. A woman poses different qualities that can help keep the family strong. These qualities can be categorized in the four archetypes of a woman. The idea of the woman archetype is presented by Carl Jung. The first is Mother Nature, the very physical aspect and the second is the virgin, which represents the spiritual aspect of the archetype. The third...

Kyndall Foust Mr. Lindner English III AP 4th 18 February 2014
Exile in the Grapes of Wrath
There comes a time when desperate circumstances calls for irrational actions. In
Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath, Jim Casy is faced with the challenge of choosing right vs. wrong. Seeking a new philosophy, Casy finds himself displaced from his normal preaching life into an alienating and enriching experience that reveals his true character.
In the process of excluding himself from his everyday...

During much of The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck focuses on familyas a general concept, and specifically, the Joads. Throughout the story, the Joad family undergoes many changes. They are joined by other travelers, they suffer losses and hardships, and by the end of the story the family has grown and transformed a great deal from what they used to be. The concept of family changes just as much, if not more. The word "family" grows to mean much more than a small group of people related by...

Optimism in The Grapes of Wrath
At the end of the novel The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, it seems as though the Joads have nothing left to live for, however Steinbeck shows signs of optimism through symbols and biblical allusions. The Joads have gone through tremendous hardships throughout their entire trip to California to find work. They have lost several family members, have gone without work and lived on extremely low rations for months. At the height of their struggles, the Joads...

The great Gatsby takes place in the 20’s, a time of parties and finding happiness after WW1. The Grapes of Wrath takes place in the 30’s during the great depression and people are leaving their homes and lives to find work in California. Both times were very different economically, but they were the same in the terms of people striving for the American Dream of obtaining wealth and social status in the attempt of improving their lives. During the 20s, people wanted to escape the terrors of the...

In The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, and The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, the characters are forced with economic, social, and political problems that they must cope with throughout the story. Both books are similar in that they emphasize that in this country, one simply cannot win unless they play by nature's rules.
The economic problems of both stories were great. Jurgis (The Jungle) wishes to go to America to get rich. Buying a house stresses the whole idea of animals to have...

In The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, the narrator explains how a social issue affected the Joad family. The realistic novel mimics life and offers social commentary too. It presents many windows on real life in Midwest America in the 1930s. Throughout the 1930s, America was trapped in the worst economic era ever—The Great Depression. The Joad family is struggling to find salvation during this tough time period. Because of this, they must travel from Oklahoma to California in order to...

﻿Symbolism in the Grapes of Wrath
The timeless classic The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck tells the story of the Joad family during the Dust Bowl era of the 1930s and how they leave their home in Oklahoma to try to find work in California. However, the novel is more than just about the Joads’ expedition across the western United States. Symbols play a key part in the meaning of Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath.
One of the main symbols comes very early in the story, the turtle. As the turtle is...

Joseph Campbell once said that “one way or another, we all have to find what best fosters the flowering of our humanity in this contemporary life, and dedicate ourselves to that.” The role of human in this world is to help make life better for others.
Ideas and actions taken by the characters in The Grapes of Wrath prove the role of humans to help each other is a necessity. Jim Casy is a radical philosopher and a unifier of men, he presumably assumes the role of Jesus Christ in the novel. In...

The Grapes of Wrath: Interconnection
In The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, Steinbeck presents the migrant farmers of the Dustbowl Migration to the general public through the Joad family; a family whom faces discrimination and blind hate from the Californians. Steinbeck touches the subject of personal, social, and economic interconnection during that time period through the action of the Joads and the people they encounter.
The concept of individual interconnection is set into motion...

Weakness in Men in The Grapes of Wrath
Sexual inequality can be traced throughout history. Since centuries ago the male populations have been perceived as the ones with less weakness and flaws, they were almost even deemed as superior. Kings were often regarded as the chosen ones over the queens, additionally, in many locations including Greece and early America only male could vote. In The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, male characters of the Joad family; Pa, a collapsed leader, Uncle...

English 11 Honors
Grapes of Wrath
When the house is on fire, the firefighter leads the way in. When the enemy is
bearing down on the homeland, the soldier leads the fight against. When the going gets
tough, he who steps up to the plate to lead the way shows true heroism to me. When
times prove to be difficult, Tom Joad is the one who steps up to that plate. Leading his
family west across the country from Oklahoma to California, Tom encounters many...

about The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Prompt: Is Steinbeck advocating communism w/ "Grapes"?
Thesis: John Steibeck severly criticizes capitalsim in his novel The Grapes of Wrath, but is not advocating communism.
John Steinbeck took a chance when he published The Grapes of Wrath in 1939. He wrote a clear criticism of capitalism at a time when the United States was experiencing the remnants of a 1920s "red scare". He begins the novel by showing the reader the sickness of capitalism, then...

The movie “The Grapes of Wrath” I watched recently is the classic adaptation of John Steinbeck’s novel written and published in 1939 only one year before the movie was released. When the movie production was approved the director John Ford and his crew were able to accomplish a major task and finish the project without getting involved in the conflict with labor unions what was very important since many members of the crew belonged to them. The script which is based on Steinbeck’s book adopted a...

﻿Cunningham
LaVista
ENG 0235- Period 4
12 September 2013
The Theme of Family in The Grapes of Wrath
Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck portrays the overall theme of the importance of family is. The novel is set in the 1930s during the era of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, causing poverty nationwide, especially concentrated in farm towns. The protagonist of The Grapes of Wrath, Tom Joad, is on his way home to his farm in Oklahoma from jail when he realizes his family has been...

“You can leave home all you want, but home will never leave you.” Sonsyrea Tate. Tate’s quote has distinct meaning depending on the individual who analyzes it. Many believe this quote to mean that a home is not a single place or object, but a concept or state of mind, which you have when you are around your family or loved ones. In the book The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck this idea of “home is where the heart is,” is shown throughout the book. One of the main characters, Ma, shows with...

John Steinbeck explores many themes in "The Grapes of Wrath"; such as, the importance of avoiding stereotypes/labels and the need to share what we have with others. Steinbeck conveys these two themes through setting and characterization.
Steinbeck opens the novel by describing the dust bowl in Oklahoma and the "men and women huddled in their houses, and they tied their handkerchiefs over their noses when they went out, and wore goggles to protect their eyes." (pg 3) Steinbeck made it clear that...

Grapes of Wrath Essay
In the book, Grapes of wrath, written by John Steinbeck, the endurance shown isn’t merely going to work, or moving out of a house; it is shown for the survival of their family. Some have to endure physical and mental obstacles as a part of their role for themselves and their families. Others have to endure the hardships of the camp that hey stay at, while relying on friends or family to provide them with food. Parents have to endure starvation by providing their kids...

Symbolism
Symbols are often used to represent bigger ideas and concepts in a novel. In The Grapes of Wrath, there are many symbols to represent the lives of not only the Jode family but the migrants as a whole. Steinbeck uses the symbols of the dust and the turtle to show the struggles of the migrants and how they overcame all odds, revealing the only hope the migrants had to survive the harsh trek cross country was perseverance.
The dust is the first significant symbol Steinbeck uses to...

Taylor Steed
Dr. Abston
English III
2 February 2013
The Grapes of Wrath:
Jim Casy as a Christ Figure
In the novel "The Grapes of Wrath", George Steinbeck portrays Jim Casy as a Christ-like figure in many ways. This allows us the opportunity to see Casy as an overall better person throughout the entirety of the novel.
At the beginning of the novel, we are instantly hit with the fact that Casy was a preacher, but is no longer one because his beliefs conflict with the so-called...

Truth and Innocence
“And I thought that all those little kids are going to grow up someday. And all those little kids are going to do the things that we do. And they will all kiss someone someday. But for now, sledding is enough. I think it would be great if sledding were always enough, but it isn’t.” –The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
Little kids are the face of innocence because they have not been tainted by the truths and horrors of the world. In The Grapes of Wrath by John...

﻿Psalm 37 and The Grapes of Wrath
21 The wicked borrow and do not repay,
but the righteous give generously;
32 The wicked lie in wait for the righteous,
intent on putting them to death;
33 but the Lord will not leave them in the power of the wicked
or let them be condemned when brought to trial
In The Grapes of Wrath, many people migrated to California in hope of finding jobs, but they discovered something else entirely. What they found was a corrupt society, and thousands...

The importance of the "we" theme throughout the novel is demonstrated many times in Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. The Joads were only capable of making it to California, and continue living on, by sticking together. Ma Joad said many times that it was okay to lose anything besides the family that everything would always be all right as long as they still had each other. Casy had also reinforced this theme by being "a man of the people," throughout the story. After his time in the wilderness, he...

HOPE AND FEAR
John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath
Where does the courage come from? Where does the terrible faith come from?
John Steinbeck, born in California in 1902 ( -1968, New York), is one of the most important American writers, widely known for his Pulitzer prize-winning novel “The Grapes of Wrath”, a “social” tale about the strugglings of the Joad family to get to California, “the promised land”. Considered to be his masterpiece, this novel is not only the story of a family, but...

Many novels written contain parallels to the Bible. This couldn't be truer in the case John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck alludes to Biblical characters and events with the use of Rose of Sharon, Jim Casy, and also the Joad's journey to California. There are other events in the book that parallel the Bible, although the portrayal of Rose of Sharon and Jim Casy are the most obvious.
The novel is broken into 3 different parts, the time spent in Oklahoma, the journey on the road,...

One in the Same
What is the difference between the time period of the Great Depression and now? The economy was bad and there were terrible natural disasters, very much like the world today. John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, is written about the Joad family. Although it is a fictional story the event in the book really did happen to many families during that time period. The Joad family lived on a farm in Oklahoma where the dust bowl was taking place. The Joads lost their home due to...

Reading Reflection
The Grapes of Wrath is Steinbeck’s portrayal of the social aspect of the Great Depression that also gives his philosophical belief on Humanism. His story is of the people and for the people. He shows the love and compassion people are capable of during hard times. Unlike The Fountain Head more than one character in the book represents the author’s beliefs, and the characters aren’t so single sided. Reverend Casey and Ma Joad and family, are the embodiment of Steinbeck’s...

How The Grapes of Wrath represents the “American Dream”
The United States is a melting pot of all cultures, races, religions and nationalities. People come here from all corners of the globe to live freely and exercise the rights they might not have had in the places they left. For some people these new freedoms are the ultimate goal, they want to live free, live comfortably, and love family. Some see America as the land of opportunity, they want to make it rich beyond their wildest...